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I LOVE the pinks, reds and whites of Valentine’s Day. There is something really cute about V Day in school (I mean lower school – we’re not even getting into higher grades!!). While I LOVE the whole happy and colourful part of V Day, I really DO NOT like the candy it is associated with. I try my best not to keep candy at home (occasional treat is fine) but there is not much I can hide if Kit carries it from friends on V Day from school. So I made a resolution - if I do not want my child to come home with candy, I should not pass it around on V Day either…sounds like a reasonable pledge, right? Well, it sounded great to me and then Kit suggested I bake cookies instead and tag them on to cards. The gullible baker in me agreed and then came the time when Kit counted the number of cookies she needed AND the gravity of the situation dawned on me…I was baking in excess of 70 cookies!!!!

Too late to panic I told myself – this had to be done. The over eager baker in me had suggested we make frosting sandwiched heart shaped cookies – so in all I was baking you know how many cookies…

It was a crazy morning and afternoon making the dough, refrigerating it, rolling it, cutting hearts, again cutting hearts for the ‘peep show’, baking, cooling, frosting and cling wrapping. I thought I had done a remarkable job when I had wrapped the individual cookies…but then Kit came home and it was time to tag the cards. We decided to put the wrapped cookies in cone shaped treat bags and tie ribbons on both ends – it did look so cute in the end but I have to tell you, we both were exhausted!! Day over, cookies sent to school and I know Kit will enjoy handing them over to her friends. Job well done!!

Happy Valentine’s Day to all the mums out there – I’m sure you did something special to make your child’s day special!!

As parents, we never think twice when it comes to commanding children. Its something we do by default. Kit, can you sit down and do something creative now? Kat, when do you think you will be done with your homework? Can you concentrate now?

In the same way, we try to fit in as many activities we can (and can afford) into a child's schedule to keep them busy and make them smarter! The same happened with Kit. A typical day for her used to be - go to school at 8am, come back at 4pm, have an after school activity (gymnastics, swimming, art, ice skating) till 5:30pm, shower at 6pm, dinner at 6:30pm and then prepare for bed by 7:30pm. - wow! exhausting!!

It was during one of these tightly packed days that I asked Kit if she could hurry up finishing her puzzle (which she had only just started) so we could be on schedule for shower and dinner. She looked up at me with her big eyes and solemn face and said - "Will I ever have time for life, mummy?"

Although I did not think much at the time, when I thought about it later at night, I realized that Kit was right. We try so hard to make them smart that we forget to let them be kids. Let them have fun.

So I learnt my lesson this year. Kit has an interesting schedule with activities AND fun included and most importantly, there is time for free play. There is definitely TIME FOR LIFE!

The year starts...too much cold and then once the weather thaws, I feel the school suddenly comes to life and we have one thing after another scheduled every few days. It was nice to hibernate for a while!

Kat goes to music school every week and one of her favourite classes is composition. It only takes a good teacher to unravel the artist in a creative child. Kat has shown immense talent in composition and we are SO proud of her. The music school had a concert last week where there was a world premier of all the budding composers – as the pieces tend to be extremely difficult, the faculty played them and it was a heart warming experience to hear Kat’s composition being played so beautifully. Her first piano composition is called Variations and I was mesmerised for the entire time. So proud of her! She is now working on another Oriental one and plans to call it Sachi(for happiness and blessing in Japanese).

Kit, on the other hand is trying to copy Kat and is heavily inspired by her compositions – so the other day she decided to compose a song. She has called her song “You are my only love” and I cannot express how cute it is when she sings along. Of course, her playing on the piano and the notes she has written do not match up so much but she has made such a grand effort!

Now we have 2 singing concerts to attend next week followed by Kat’s 5 day school trip. In between that I have to be in Kit’s school for a celebration and a couple of bake sales and book fairs at both their schools...

As long as the weather stays mild...we can do it. After all, Kat has to wear the black dress and ballet flats for the concerts...Rain God – have mercy please!!

We went to the potluck dinner at Kit's school last week...I am not a typical drop off and pick up mum so need some prompting to look at specific places for latest wall decorations, children's works of art etc. After an okayish dinner with hurried bits of food at the Potluck, Kit's teacher asked me: "Have you seen what Kit wrote on her message?"Feeling totally out of sync I answered : "No, has anything changed since last month?"She said it was a brand new message and the way she smiled made me think Kit must have disclosed some family secrets (she's brilliant at that!) - my heart beating fast I went to the 'wall' and saw this beautiful message from Kit about her family.